Archive for January, 2016

Thanks to my current college classes I’ve been thinking a lot lately about architecture. Even if we don’t often pause to consider it, it’s a subject most of us have at least some appreciation for. You could probably describe your idea of a cozy house, a sleek office building, or a majestic church just by how the structure is put together.

Architecture is fascinating because it can give us clues about the attitudes behind the buildings as well. Houses are built with separate rooms for individual people to sleep in, but also common areas for families to share meals and other day-to-day activities. Office buildings tend to be designed in tightly-packed cubes to optimize space and maximize productivity. Churches, at least old ones, often include lots of filtered light and upward-pointing lines in an effort to set the sanctuary apart from the workaday world.

I was reminded of the descriptive power of architecture just the other day, when the Alliance Defending Freedom released a video explaining my college’s current legal battle against the abortifacient mandate of Obamacare. The video contains footage of both Geneva’s campus and the US Department of Health and Human Services, and as a professor noted, the difference in architecture is immediately striking. Massive bureaucracy on one hand contrasts with small but vibrant community on the other. You don’t even have to begin by knowing the people inside each organization; you can see it in the buildings.

The point is this: Different architecture reflects different spirits. The way something was put together does–or should–reveal something about what its creators valued. And the same is true for music.

Music has its own kind of architecture: plain or ornate, simple or complex, for one voice or many. Music, too, conveys attitudes and beliefs about the world in which it is created. And when you consider psalm-singing alongside the dominant music of contemporary society, the result is again a study in contrasts.

Think about the structure behind “pop” music genres like screamo and dubstep–the piercing vocals, the guitar riffs, the electronic manipulation, even just the sheer volume. All of these traits certainly seem to send the message (what T. David Gordon would call a “meta-message”) that edginess and entertainment value are the supreme goals of the music. The content of music and lyrics may be trivial, but that doesn’t matter; the medium was created merely for mass consumption, and that’s what counts.

A good topic for another day would be to try to answer whether the genre of “contemporary Christian music” sends a different message. I’m afraid much of it doesn’t. But let’s skip this category of music, along with the older category of hymns, and go back to the psalms. What does the architecture of psalm-singing (not even the content, but just the structures and patterns of psalm-singing) reveal? I’d love to hear your thoughts, but for now, here are a few of my own:

Psalm-singing reveals a common identity. When we sing psalms in church, we don’t perform solos. Neither do we let a group of people stand at the front of the sanctuary and do the singing for us. No, we sing together, both in unison and in harmony, affirming that we are all members of the universal body of Christ.

Psalm-singing opposes the idea of performance. Groups like my college choir may occasionally sing psalms in concert, but congregational psalm-singing has never been designed around performance. To be honest, a lot of congregational psalm-singing sounds pretty rough around the edges. But in the era of squeaky-clean digital mastering, we may need to be reminded that there are reasons to sing other than “sounding good.”

Psalm-singing legitimizes a wide range of emotions. In contrast to the limited emotional vocabulary of pop music, the psalms treat a vast spectrum of life experiences with a vast spectrum of emotional responses. If we take psalm-singing seriously, our worship will include a variety of moods and subjects, some of which we may not be particularly comfortable with. And that’s the point: over time, psalm-singing prepares us for all the ups and downs of the Christian life.

Psalm-singing reveals an attitude of worship. The psalms address God so frequently that this point almost seems unnecessary–but it isn’t. The ultimate recipient of our singing isn’t the giant crowd in a mosh pit, nor is it even an auditorium full of fellow believers. The primary reason for our singing isn’t to share our thoughts and feelings with the rest of the world, it’s to communicate with God.

Different architecture, different spirits–and may the Spirit that dwells within us impart a God-honoring (and refreshingly different) shape to the songs we sing!

Whether or not you like the idea of New Year’s resolutions, the start of 2016 is a great opportunity to set one goal: Know the psalms better. If you’re looking to grow in your knowledge of Scripture, your understanding of redemptive history, and your closeness to Christ, the psalms are an excellent place to start. If you’re not sure how to begin, here are five practical options for delving into the Book of Psalms throughout the upcoming year.

1. Read through the psalms in your personal daily devotions.

This can be as simple as reading a psalm every day, perhaps the first thing in the morning or the last thing before you go to bed. If you consistently read a psalm a day, you’ll get through the book at least twice before the end of the year. Look for patterns as you read: What are the themes of each psalm? How would you classify them (thanksgiving, lament, wisdom, royal, etc.)? How do you see Jesus’ work foreshadowed in them?

On the other hand, it’s not necessary to buy a commentary on the whole psalter to appreciate the psalms more. There are many smaller books and booklets devoted to one section or category from the Book of Psalms. A favorite of mine is Rhett Dodson’s This Brief Journey: Loving and Living the Psalms of Ascents,which focuses on Psalms 120-127.

3. Pick some psalms to memorize.

Did you memorize Psalm 23 as a child? It doesn’t have to stop there. Choose a handful of psalms–maybe one from each book of the Psalter, or one for each month of the year–and intentionally, methodically memorize them, either by yourself or with your family. Let these divinely-inspired words penetrate your skin and circulate through your spiritual bloodstream.

Many people, myself included, find it easier to memorize the psalms when they’re set to music. Which brings me to my fourth point:

4. Buy your own psalter.

You don’t have to be musical to benefit from having a metrical psalter in your home. If you attend a church that uses the Psalter Hymnal, ask if they have extra copies or buy your own from Reformed Fellowship. Other good, modern psalters include the New Genevan Psalter, the Trinity Psalter, the Book of Psalms for Singing, and the Book of Psalms for Worship. Each of these books has its own strengths and weaknesses, but all of them present the entire Book of Psalms in an easy-to-memorize metrical format. Even just reading them aloud will make memorization easier.

The task will be less daunting, of course, if you have a musical instrument and/or some degree of musical talent in your household. But even if not, you can always grab a pitch pipe and plunge forward into uncharted musical territories with the rest of your family. My college roommates and I do this almost every Sunday, and we love it!

5. Reflect on what you sing in church.

This last point is the hardest of all. My mind wanders in a thousand different directions on Sunday mornings, and keeping it focused on worship at all–let alone the significance of what I’m singing–is a challenging task. To start with, assuming your church sings at least a few psalms in worship, look for connections between the psalms you studied during the week and the words of the congregational songs. Are you singing a psalm you previously studied or memorized? Do different things about the words stand out to you when they’re sung in church? Does the overall theme of the psalm seem different when applied corporately (to the whole body) instead of individually (just to you)?

If your church doesn’t sing psalms, take the opportunity to study further what the psalms have to say about corporate worship, and what the Bible has to say about the psalms in corporate worship. Maybe devote some time on the Lord’s Day to singing psalms at home with your family. And pray that more people in your congregation would come to appreciate the great blessing of the psalter!

These ideas aren’t a magic formula for embedding the psalms in your heart, nor are they meant to detract from the other spiritual disciplines we should be cultivating. The Christian walk is about much more than just knowing the Book of Psalms, but it should certainly include it. And as a new year begins, now is a great time to start!

–MRK

Search blog

Welcome to URC Psalmody

We hope you'll join us as we discuss music, worship, the psalms, the church, and much more here on URC Psalmody. You can learn about the purpose of this blog here. We look forward to to seeing you in the discussions!